Data communication networks are widely used to transport data from one device to another device. The most prevalent is the Internet, which is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP) protocol suite. As more and more data are being transported across the Internet, network traffic congestion is becoming an increasing concern. Typical effects of network congestion include transmission delay, packet (data) loss, and the blocking of new connections.
TCP congestion control is the primary mechanism for controlling congestion on the Internet. A congestion window, which indicates the maximum number of packets that can be sent out on a connection without being acknowledged, is maintained by the sender to do congestion avoidance. Congestion is detected when an acknowledgement for a packet is not received within a round-trip delay estimate (the estimated timeout).
Other congestion control mechanisms such as traffic engineering, network engineering, and network planning have been used by network carriers and operators to address the problems associated with network congestion.
The subject matter claimed in the present disclosure is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described in the present disclosure may be practiced.